Jharkhand got the better of Odisha 3-1 to clinch the 3rd Hockey India Sub-Junior Men National Championship (East Zone) title at Nagaon, Assam today.
     Sudhir Munda have Jharkhand the lead in the 15th minute but Odisha scored the equaliser in the very next minute with the field goal by Amit Chirmako.
     But in the second half, Munda scored two more goals in the 51st and 62nd minute to help Jharkhand run away with the match.

Jharkhand emerge champions in Sub-Junior Men National Hockey

PTI Automatic

The Hockey India League (HIL) is a key fixture in International Hockey Federation's calender as the event would help in enhancing the possibility of playing the game throughout the year, FIH chief executive Kelly Fairweather said.
     The inaugural season of HIL finished in February this year, with five teams competing for top honours.
     "To come back to our (FIH's) philosophy of trying to have hockey throughout the year, this (HIL) is going to be a key fixture in that strategy," Fairweather said.
     He said the the FIH has received interests from other hockey playing nations to orgainse such leagues after the tremendous success of inaugural HIL.
     "Will we have more leagues like this? We have received a lot of interest. There is already the European Hockey League which has been going for five years and we have received interest from other parts of the world. At the moment we want to bed down the Hockey India League in 2014, we have our World Cup in Holland in 2014, which is .

HIL is a "key fixture" in FIH's calender: FIH

Recuperating from their shoulder and knee injuries, star Indian grapplers Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt remain doubtful starters for the Senior Asian Wrestling Championship to be held here from April 18 to 22.
     "I am recovering well from my injury. My knee is showing signs of improvement. I will undergo a fitness test a day or two before the Championship and based on it, the coach and the federation will take a final call on my participation," Yogeshwar told PTI.
     "If I don't participate in the championship, my fellow grappler Bajrang, who has been named as reserve, will compete in my 60-kg category," said the London Olympic bronze medallist.
     Both Yogeshwar and Sushil (66kg) are part of the squad announced for the Championships to be held at the K D Jadhav Stadium.
     The chief national coach Vinod Kumar said he is hopeful of their participation in the event but does not want to push them hard.
     "The championship is happening in India, so we can take a call on ...

Sushil, Yogeshwar doubtful for Asian Championship

Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur's valuable unbeaten half-century and left-arm spinner Ekta Bisht grabbed three wickets as India beat Bangaldesh by five wickets in the first women's ODI played here today.
     Opting to bat, Bangladesh scored 194 for nine in 50 overs with skipper Salma Khatun remaining not out on 75. For the Indian eves, Bisht scalped three for 27 while pacer Subhalakshmi Sharma got two wickets.
     In reply, an 83-run fourth wicket stand between skipper Harmanpreet (63 not out) and Anagha Deshpande (47) sealed the victory for the home team with four balls to spare.
     Harmanpreet anchored the innings to perfection as her 63 came off 100 deliveries with three hits to the fence. Anagha however attacked the Bangladeshi bowlers as her 47 came off only 50 balls with five boundaries.
     When Bangladesh batted in the morning, Rumana Ahmed (38) and Lata Mondal (39) shared a 57 run stand for the third wicket but after that save their skipper Salma, no one was able to make ...

Ekta, Harmanpreet guide India to victory over Bangla eves

With an increasing number of foreign players making to the top in the professional basketball league, National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner David Stern today said an Indian hoopster could be seen playing in the league in the next five years.
	"We already had a woman (Geetu Anna Jose) try out for WNBA and we would expect to have men and women showing up for each of our professional leagues. If you need a specific answer, I would say five years," Stern told reporters here on his maiden visit to India.
     "If we get our grassroot programmes going bigger and kids across this country start bouncing the ball rather than kicking it or hitting it with a strange paddle, there will be an enormous influx of very good and talented athletes into our game.
     "If you had asked me 20 years ago, I would have said I don't know. Now 85 out of our 400 players are born outside the USA. It depends on individual athlete and how they are going to go about. The one thing we do is to work as .

India will have a player in NBA in five years: David Stern

Leaders East Bengal will look to take themselves closer to a pre-quarterfinal berth in the AFC Cup when they face struggling Tampines Rovers of Singapore at Yubabharati Krirangan here tomorrow.
     The stadium will hold a football match seven days after it hosted the Indian Premier League Sixth Season opening ceremony.
     Having beaten the same side by a record 4-2 margin in an away match five days ago, East Bengal will be upbeat to do an encore at their home turf, something that will take them closer to a last 16 place.
     The 4-2 margin was East Bengal's highest in an away match in the AFC Cup as the red-and-gold brigade will look for another win under coach Trevor Morgan who's set to leave the club after his contract expires at the end of the season.
     With a past experience in the S-League, Morgan knows the Singapore team and his expertise will once again come handy for East Bengal.
     Captain Mustafic Fahrudin of the Tampines, incidentally, had played under Morgan ...

East Bengal eyeing last-16 berth of AFC Cup

Korean-origin Indian archery coach Lim Chae Woong said his focus is to identify young talents and nurture them in the next four years for the 2016 Olympic Games.
     "The current batch of women recurve team comprising of ace archer Deepika Kumari, L Bombayala Devi, Dola Banerjee and Chekrovolu Swuro were doing good in the international arena compared to their male counterpart but no new women archer was coming up," Lim, who came here to take part in National Ranking Archery Tournament, said.
     Emphasising on the need to develop a bench strength of the women's team, Lim told PTI that current bunch's performance is bound to drop if the graph of any of the archer fall.
     "It was necessary to identify young talents as some of the archers in the current batch are growing old," he added.
     Arjuna awardee Olympians Dola (33-year-old) Bombayala Devi (28) and Swuro (31) are already old, the coach said.
	"The performance of the Indian women recurve team would be hit if they failed to .

Archery coach to look for new talents

Taking action under its controversial Sports Code, the government has asked the Secretary General of Paralympic Committee of India, Rathan Singh to step down from his post on the ground that he has attained the age of 70.
     The age and tenure guidelines of the Sports Code -- which has been hotly contested by the Indian Olympic Association and few National Sports Federations -- provides that a person cannot become a president or secretary of a sports body on attaining the age of 70.
     "I am directed to refer to your letter dated 18-2-2012 on the subject cited above and to stated that as per the provisions of Sports Code, as contained in the order dated 0l-05-2010, the Secretary General of PCI ceases to hold office on attaining the age of 7O years," the Sports Ministry said in a letter addressed to Rathan Singh.
     "This issues with the approval of Secretary (Sports)," said the letter, a copy of which was marked for PCI President Sultan Ahmed.
     The PCI welcomed the ...

Ministry tells PCI Secy Gen to step down under Sports Code

Rider Andrea Locatelli brought a tremendous result for Mahindra Racing Team in round two of the Italian National Motorcycle Racing Championship (CIV) by winning the first race from pole position and finishing third in the second race in Moto 3 class in Mugello.
     Michael Rinaldi, the second rider of the team, finished eighth in the first race and sixth in the second.
     Commenting on his performance, Locatelli said, "In the first race, I gave everything I had on the first lap and got a little margin that proved to be enough for the win. The second race was much more difficult compared to the first. There were ten riders battling for the win and it was a brawl for all 13 laps. Weather conditions were different so we had to adjust the set-up a bit. The team did a fantastic job on it."
     Rinaldi said, "As Andrea Locatelli's performance demonstrated, the bike has great potential. As far as my bike is concerned, we sorted out the issues that limited our performance yesterday. I got 

Mahindra win 1st race of CIV Moto3 round 2

Sahara Force India do not depend now just on wet weather conditions to upset the big teams as the car is competitive enough in all conditions, team principal Vijay Mallya asserted today.
     Going into Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix, Force India are fifth in the constructors standings, behind Mercedes and ahead of Sauber and McLaren.
     Mallya said his team's assessment in comparison with the rivals can be done better after races in China and Bahrain.
     "China has always produced spectacular races and it's not uncommon to experience some wet weather, but we know that both our drivers and the VJM06 are comfortable in all conditions. In the past we used to hope for rain as our only chance to upset the front-runners, but now we are more competitive in all conditions," Mallya said.
     "The next two weekends, with races in China and Bahrain, will put us in a position to see where we really stand in comparison with our rivals, the liquor baron added.
     Paul di Resta said it is still 

We are better force now: Mallya

Mahindra Racing made a stupendous start to the 2013 season of Moto GP World championship as Miguel Oliveira and Efren Vquez earned the side 15 points in the Moto3 class by finishing seventh and 10th respectively in an action-packed race, here.
      Riding all new MGP3O, built in just four months before first tests, 18-year-old Portuguese Oliveira and 26-year-old Spaniard Vquez had qualified fifth and eighth.
     Oliveira stayed with the leading five for the early laps, and they were still within sight as he fought back and forth for sixth. He lost it over the line by less than a tenth of a second.
     Vquez was trading blows in an even bigger battle, close behind. Four bikes crossed the line within just over half a second. The Mahindra was second in the group by a breathtaking 0.029 of a second, nonetheless saving tenth place.
     Oliveira said their bike had the potential to finish in top-5.
     "It is a little bit frustrating when you feel you have the potential to fight for ...

Mahindra Racing enjoy double top-10 finish in season-opener

The Basketball Federation of India will launch the first-ever 3x3 national basketball championship for both men and women, at the Thyagraj stadium here.
     The three-a-side format will have matches of 10-minute duration, covering half-court and four matches would be played simultaneously.
     The first leg of the championship development program will be held on April 10-11 and the Indian squad for the upcoming 3x3 Asian championships will be selected from the tournament.
     Last year, the national women team had clinched gold medal in the 3x3 Asian games in China, while earlier men and women team had bagged bronze and silver medal respectively, at the 3x3 Beach Games.
     The new format of Basketball is being aggressively promoted by FIBA World and FIBA Asia and conducting such programs at the national level is important as it would help identify and develop top basketball talent in the country.

Three-a-side basketball nationals on April 10-11

Ace golfer Jeev Milkha Singh today urged the government to build more public courses in India to make the sport popular in the country.
     While Jeev admitted that of late Indian golfers have made their presence felt at the global stage, he said a lot needs to be done from the government's end to make golf a mass sport in the country.
     "We need more public golf courses and driving ranges in the country to popularise golf," said Jeev, who was named the brand ambassador of Swedish luxury car-maker, Volvo Auto here today.
     "In India, golf is considered to be an elite sport so it is not possible for everyone to play in private courses. We need to give opportunities to all who want to play the sport. And for that, we need public golf courses.
     "That's what I have been requesting the government because it is the government which has to allocate the land to build public courses," he said.
     The inaugural Golf Premier League, a franchise-based event organised on the lines of .

Need more public courses to make golf popular: Jeev

The television broadcast of the recently-concluded India-Australia Test series has garnered highest average rating for a Test series played by India in the past four years.
     ESPN STAR Sports' commitment for enhanced viewer engagement with the introduction of Hindi commentary simulcast found favour with cricket fans as it contributed 40 per cent of the overall ratings at an impressive average rating of 2.05 TVR. About 9.28 crore people watched the telecast.
     The India-Australia series has delivered almost 50 per cent higher ratings as compared to the previous India-Australia series played in Australia in the year 2011/12 which averaged 1.37 TVR.
     The four-Test series also delivered 22 per cent higher ratings than the India England Test series played earlier this season, which delivered an average of 1.68 TVR.
     The TV ratings peaked at 3.2 TVR on the eventful third day of the fourth Test match when Cheteshwar Pujara made a quickfire 82 in India's pursuit for victory.
    

India-Australia Test series earns highest TV ratings in 4 yrs

London Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar could not live up to the billing as he failed to qualify for the finals of the 25-metre rapid fire pistol event at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea today.
     The other two Indians participating in the event, Pemba Tamang and Harpreet Singh, too failed to qualify for the medal round.
     While Vijay was placed a disappointing 18th in the qualification stage, Tamang and Harpreet did a shade better, finishing 13th and 16th respectively.
     Vijay shot 278 in stage 1 and 286 in stage 2 for a total of 564 with the help of 11 x, which was not good enough to take the 27-year-old army shooter from Hamirpur to the medal round.
     Pemba Tamang totalled 569 after scoring 280 and 289 in the two stages. He had 16 x to his credit.
     Harpreet had a cumulative score of 566 after shooting 280 and 286 with the help of 17 x.
     Germany's Christian Reitz clinched the gold medal while the silver went to Yuehong Li of China. Russia's Leonid Ekimov 

No medal for Vijay in ISSF World Cup

With an eye to promote the sport at the grassroot level, Hockey India today formed a High Performance and Development Committee for the year 2013-14 to be headed by its secretary general, Narinder Batra.
     The 15-member committee includes Olympians, international players and chief coaches while Sports Authority of India will be an invitee member.
     The Committee will prepare blueprints and ensure that same pattern of coaching is followed in the country at all levels, and will meet quarterly to discuss the progress.
     The formation of the committee was a necessary step after appointing Dutchman Roelant Oltmans as director (high performance) earlier.
     Members:
     Narinder Batra (Chairman), Roelant Oltmans (Vice-Chairman), Elena Norman (Convenor), Ajit Pal Singh, Balbir Singh, Dilip Tirkey, Sukhvir Singh Grewal, Thoiba Singh, Mukesh Kumar, Dr RP Singh, Surinder Kaur, Saba Anjum, Michael Nobbs, Neil Hawgood and Gregg Clark.

HI forms high performance and development committee

Tamil Nadu will host the World Chess Championship here from November 6 to 26, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced in the state assembly today.
     The government would release Rs 29 crore to conduct the championship, being held for the first time in India, she said while making a suo moto statement on the floor of the assembly.
     Last year, the government wanted to host the event, but Russia won it its bid and staged the event, she said.
     Jayalalithaa recalled that World Chess Federation President Kirsan Illyumzhinov had met her in 2011 with the proposal to hold the event in Chennai.
      This year, the Federation allotted the event to Tamil Nadu without going through the bidding process, she said.
      Five time world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand and Norway's Magnus Carlsen, ranked number one are among the top players who would be participating in the championship.

TN to host World Chess Championships in November

They are unbeaten so far but Sunrisers Hyderabad batsman Cameron White feels his team's batsmen need to lift their game to make the bowlers' job a little easy.
     "We need to lift our game as batsmen. As I said, the bowlers are doing to a good job. From a batting point of view, myself definitely included, we have to make the bowlers' job a bit easier and bat better," he told reporters late last night after the Sunrisers managed to post victory against Royal Challengers in the Super Over.
     White's two towering sixes helped Sunrisers beat RCB by a five run-margin in the Super Over, after the scores were tied at the end of 20 overs.
     "Lot of things could have been done better. We definitely could have batted and fielded better. The bowling is quite good at the moment. But, there are still some areas to work on as well.
     "We are fighting hard to win these matches. So, there is a lot of room for improvement. Hopefully, on Tuesday we can show some more improvement to win," he .

Batsmen need to lift their game: White

Reigning world champion Rupesh Shah added another feather in his cap by clinching the 12th Asian Billiards championship with win over compatriot Alok Kumar in the fiercely fought final, here today.
     After winning the lag, Alok asked Rupesh to start with white and after small ifs and but, Rupesh registered first game win in best of 11 final match.
     Alok recovered from that in the second game and leveled the match 1-1 but Rupesh rebounded by producing 67 points break and advanced 2-1.
     After that with full composer Alok produced an unfinished century break and further won the next game too to step ahead. Sniffing the danger, Rupesh sum up himself and produced three breaks of 101, 95 and 100 to leave Alok way behind.
     Alok, who is well known for his fighting spirit, succeeded to pocket ninth game by producing a break off 76 points but last game and the title was waiting for Rupesh as Alok missed thrice in the tenth game which Rupesh capitalized and sealed the match.
     .

Rupesh becomes Asian Billiards champion

Pacer Ishant Sharma led the way with three wickets as Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers combined to restrict Royal Challengers Bangalore to 130 for eight in their Pepsi Indian Premier League (IPL) match here today.
     Opting to bat after winning the toss, Bangalore could never get the momentum going their way after losing Chris Gayle in only the second over of the match.
     Skipper Virat Kohli (46) and Moses Henriques (44) were the two substantial contributors with the bat.
     Bangalore were dealt a body blow early on as young off-break bowler Hanuma Vihari left the dangerous Gayle surprised by having the left-handed West Indian caught behind with his first delivery of the match.
     The 19-year-old Vihari bowled a fast delivery from round the wicket and the extra bounce did Gayle in.
     Tillakaratne Dilshan failed for the second time in a row, as the Sri Lankan was cleaned up by Ishant for just five runs.
     Another young batsman in the RCB line-up, Karan Nair, too, did not last 

Ishant takes three as Hyderabad restrict RCB to 130/8

Opting to bat, Royal Challengers Bangalore scored 130 for eight in their Indian Premier League match against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium here today.
     Brief scores:
     Royal Challengers Bangalore: 130/8 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 46, Moises Henriques 44; Ishant Sharma 3/27).

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