SPORTS MARCH 2013

SPORTS MARCH 2013

• Gujarat won the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Championship title by defeating Punjab with six-wickets on 31 March 2013 at Holkar Stadium, Indore. Punjab won the toss and elected to bat first. The team scored 122 runs in 20 overs with a loss of 8 wickets. Gujarat accomplished the score with 13 balls remaining. Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Championship is the domestic cricket championship of India. It is organized by Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 Championship is named after the Indian cricketer, Syed Mushtaq Ali.
  
• Andy Murray of Britain on 31 March 2013 won the ATP Miami Masters by defeating Spanish third seed David Ferrer by 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) in Miami, Florida. It was Andy Murray’s 26th career tour title, and second of the year after having wining the Brisbane International in a tough two hours and 45 minutes. Andy Murray will rise to World No. 2, ahead of Roger Federer, while Ferrer will move past Rafael Nadal to become fourth in the rankings.
  
• World No. 1 Serena Williams on 30 March 2013 won Miami masters open Tennis Tournament for record sixth time. Serena Williams claimed the record by defeating Maria Sharapova 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.By winning the title, Serena Williams joined Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova as the only women to have won the same event six times.
  
• Harmanpreet Kaur was named as the Captain of the Indian women's Cricket team for the limited-overs series against Bangladesh, on 28 March 2013. The limited-overs series against Bangladesh will start in India from 2 April 2013. She replaced Mithali Raj to be the captain of the Indian women's Cricket team. Opener Poonam Raut was named as the Vice-Captain of the team. Senior Indian batswoman and Captain Mithali Raj was not named in the 15-member Indian women's Cricket team by the All-India Women's Selection Committee. There will be three T20 matches as well as three One-Day International matches in the series to be played against Bangladesh.
  
• India on 24 March 2013 won the fourth and the final test with 6 wickets remaining against Australia in the Alan Border Series – Australia Tour to India, at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium, Delhi. India won the series 4-0.In the second innings of the final match, Cheteswar Pujara scored an unbeaten 82 runs while chasing the 155 run target set by team Australia on the third day of the match. Before this Jadeja’s 5 wicket haul for 58 runs in 16 over limited Australia to a lead score of 155 runs. Ravindra Jadeja for his all-round performance won the Man of the Match award. Ravichandran Ashwin for claiming 29 wickets in the four-Test Series won the Man of the Series award. India never in the 81 year test history won more than two matches against Australia in a single series, but with this clean sweep – India secured wrote a new history in test cricket.
  
• World champion Sebastian Vettel (Germany) of Red Bull on 24 March won Malaysian Grand Prix.The event was held in Sepang. Mark Webber was on second position. Former world title holder was Lewis Hamilton.
  
• Australia, the World Champions won the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament title for the seventh time on 17 March 2013. Australia defeated Malaysia 3-2 in the final match in Malaysia. South Korea won bronze after defeating 2012 winner- New Zealand 2-1. At the fifth position was India which defeated Pakistan 4-2. Trent Mitton was declared as the man-of-the-match for final match. The top scorers of the tournaments were India's Rupinder Pal Singh and Malaysia's Faizal with six goals each. Earlier, Australia had won the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in 1983, 1996, 2004, 2005, 2007 and 2011.
  
• The Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament is held in Malaysia every year. The tournament is named after the ninth king of Malaysia- Sultan Azlan Shah. It is important to note that India won its first Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in 1985.
  
• Rafael Nadal of Spain won Indian Wells BNP Paribas Open 2013 on 17 March 2013. Nadal defeated Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. After winning Tokyo Open in October 2010, this is the first hard court victory of Nadal. With this, Nadal became number 4 in the world ranking.
  Apart from this, Maria Sharapova won the first title of 2013 in women’s final of the tournamentby defeating Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2.
  
• Kimi Raikkonen, the Australian driver of Formula One team Lotus won the season-opening Australian Grand Prix 2013 on 17 March 2013. In the Australian Grand Prix 2013 opening season, Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso and Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel finished at the second and third position respectively. Brazilian Felipe Massa, the Ferrari driver and Britain’s Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver finished at the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Kimi Raikkonen won 2007 World Championship with Ferrari.
  
• Bhaichung Bhutia, the former India captain of the football team was appointed as the chairman of the All India Football Federation’s technical committee. The decision to appoint him as the chairman was taken by President Praful Patel. He succeeds former India international Mohammad Habib. Apart from Habib, the present technical committee also includes some international players such as Pradip Chowdhury and Inder Singh.Bhutia retired from the international football in 2011. Bhaichung Bhutia scored a record of 42 goals from 107 appearances. He led India to the victory of Nehru Cup twice.
  
• Laureus World Sports Awards 2013 were organized in Rio de Janeiro on 11 March 2013. Prestigious awards were claimed by sports stars- Jessica Ennis, Andy Murray and Sebastian Coe. Jessica Ennis who won heptathlon gold in London 2012 Olympics was awarded the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award at the Theatro Municipal. Andy Murray won the Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year award. Andy Murray had won Olympic gold in the singles as well as silver in mixed doubles before winning grand slam title at the US Open in 2012. Sebastian Coe, the Chairman of the London 2012 organising committee acclaimed Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award. Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter won the World Sportsman of the Year award for third time. Feliz Sanchez, the Dominican athlete won the World Comeback of the Year Award. Daniel Dias, the multiple Paralympic champion swimmer of Brazil was awarded with the title of World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability. This was the second time he won the award. Felix Baumgartner, the Austrian skydiver was named as the World Action Sportsperson of the Year Award. Michael Phelps, the American swimmer won the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award. The Laureus World Team of the Year title was acclaimed by the European Ryder Cup Team which featured 7 UK golfers.
  
• India won a total of eight medals in the inaugural Asian Grand Prix Archery Championship at Bangkok on 14 March 2013. India won two gold, two Silver and four bronze. In the category of compound Men's individual, Ch. Jignas clinched the Gold after he defeated China's He Ying 145-142. In the Compound Men's trio category, Ch. Jignas, Abhishek Verma and Ritul Chatterjee won the Gold, registering a victory over Vietnam, 226-218.Silver was won by Rahul Banerjee in Recurve Men and Anjali Kumari in Compound Women in the individual categories. In the Recurve Men's event, Atanu Das clinched the Bronze. Recurve Women's team of Bombayala Devi, Dola Banerjee and Rimil Biruli defeated Indonesia to win a Bronze. In the same section, Bombayla Devi won a Bronze in individual category. Atanu and Bombayala also defeated opponent team in Mixed team event to win fourth Bronze for India.
  
• India's Deborah and Manorama Devi on 10 March 2013 won a bronze in the team sprint on the second to last day of the Hero Asian Cycling Championships in New Delhi. The pair came just 0.148 secs ahead by defeating Malaysia's Faihah Shahwati Mohd Adnan and Nurul Alissa Mohamad Azman.Deborah is from Andaman and Nicobar.
  
• Shrinivas won 42nd Senior National and Inter-State Carrom Championship at Akola. He defeated world no. 3 Yogesh Pardeshi in the men’s final 8-25, 25-18, 25-4. In the women’s final, Rashmi Kumari defeated I Ilavazhaki 25-9, 25-18 to win the women’s title. This was the fifth title of her career. The nationals ended on 10 March 2013. These nationals were organized at the Desai Stadium by Vidarbha Carrom Association and All India Carrom Federation.
  
• David Beckham was named as the richest footballer of the world, according to the Goal Rich List 2013. David Beckham has a total income of 175 million pound. 37-year-old Beckham is the biggest brand in the world now, leaving behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. In 2012, Beckham earned more than 20 million pound from wages as well as endorsement. The Goal Rich List 2013 revealed that the worth of Beckham is 60 million pound more than Messi. At the third position is Ronaldo, aged 28 years. He earned a total of 112 million pound in his career.
  
• Neha Tripathi defeated Thailand's Pennapa Pulsawath to win BT Pro Am of Champions golf tournament 2013 in Manesar on 10 March 2013. After initially tying up at a score of 141, Neha won the match in second playoff on 18th hole. At the third position was golfer Smriti Mehra from India who got the total score of 142. Thai golfer Tiranan Yoopan finished at the fourth position with a score of 143. Tang Ni Nhung of Vietnam came at the fifth position with an overall score of 148.
• Chen Long of China won the All England Badminton championship men’s singles title by defeating Lee Chong Wei with 21-17, 21-18. Tine Baun of Denmark,won the women’s singles title in the All England Open Badminton Championships 2013 at the National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, England on 10 March 2013. With this victory, the 33-year-old Baun became the oldest All-England women’s singles champion of Open Era. She defeated three-time world junior champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-14, 16-21, 21-10.This was the last tournament of Tine Baun’s career. Earlier, she had won the same title in 2008 and 2010. Liu and Qiu defeated the Japanese pair of Endo and Hayakawa in the men’s doubles in a one-sided final, with the unseeded Chinese pair winning 21-11, 21-9 for their first All England title. Wang and Yu of China won the women’s doubles title by defeating another Chinese pair Cheng and Zhao in two games. In the Mixed doubles event, the second seeded Indonesian pairing of Ahmad and Natsir successfully defended their All England title against the Olympic champions Zhang and Zhao. All England Open Badminton Championships is one of the oldest as well as the prestigious badminton tournaments of the world. All England Open Badminton Championships tournament is played annually.
  
• Smriti Mehra, the veteran golfer, on 6 March 2013 won her second title in the fourth leg of Hero Women`s pro golf tour 2013 in Mumbai. Smriti played a round of one under 64 and finished with an overall score of 194 at the Willington Sports Club. At the second position was Neha Tripathi who completed with the final round score of one over 66 and an overall score of 200. Sharmila Nicollet achieved third position with lowly six over 71 and a total score of 202.
  
• Deborah from India won a Bronze medal in the final of women's juniors of 500m cycle event in Asian Cycling Championship on 7 March 2013 in New Delhi. 19-year-old Deborah helped India claim its second medal in the Asian Cycling Championship 2013. Gold medal was won by Korea's Jang Yeonhee and Yu Shiou Cheng of Chinese Taipei won the silver medal. Earlier, India’s Jashanjit Kaur qualified for bronze medal match of the 2km-Individual Pursuit.
  
• Rafael Nadal defeated top seed and defending champion David Ferrer 6-0, 6-2 on 2 March 2013 in the final match of the ATP Mexican Open 2013 tennis tournament. David Ferrer was the 3-time defending champion. On the other hand, in the women’s final, Italy's Sara Errani defeated Carla Suarez-Navarro of Spain 6--0, 6-4. Rafael Nadal won ATP Mexican Open tournament for the second time. Earlier he had won this title in 2005.This is the 38th clay court title of Nadal.
  
• A Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor Being Planned The Finance Minister, P Chidambaram in his Budget speech in Lok Sabha on 28 February, said that the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) project has made rapid progress. Plans for seven new cities have been finalized and work on two new smart industrial cities at Dholera, Gujarat and Shendra Bidkin, Maharashtra will start during 2013-14. We acknowledge the support of the Government of Japan. In order to dispel any doubt about funding, The Government will provide, if required, additional funds during 2013-14 within the share of the Government of India in the overall outlay for the project. The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) are currently preparing a comprehensive plan for the Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor. The corridor will be developed in collaboration with the Governments of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The next corridor will be the Bengaluru Mumbai Industrial Corridor on which preparatory work has stared.
  
• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 1 March issued detailed guidelines allowing shareholders to convert their depository receipts into equity shares of the Issuer Company and vice-versa. IDRs are generally instruments denominated in rupees and allow overseas companies to raise funds from the Indian market. It stipulated that IDRs would be redeemable into underlying equity shares after completion of one year period from the date of listing them and the issuer will provide two-way fungibility of IDRs. This move is expected to attract more foreign companies to be listed on Indian bourses. So far only the UK-based banking major Standard Chartered PLC was listed as an IDR.