1. ICC Cricket world cup 2015
    1. Factoids
    2. Ranking after World Cup
    3. Indian Cricket in news:
  2. 35th National Games
  3. Football: AIFF Awards 2015
  4. Tennis
  5. Badminton
  6. Other Sports
  7. Government Schemes/Awards
    1. Arjun Award
    2. Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar
    3. TOPS(Target Olympics Podium Scheme)
    4. Government Funding to Sports

This page contains sport -related developments from 2015, February and March. Sports Current Affairs Questions are usually seen CAPF, CDS, Bank and State service exams. Focus area should be: (1) where was the tournament held? (2) Who defeated whom? (3) Venue (4) Mascots.

ICC Cricket world cup 2015

Host  Australia and New Zealand
Venue
  • Australia hosts 26 games: Adelaide, Brisbane, canberra, Hobart, Melbourn, Perth, Sydney.
  • New Zealand hosted 23 games: Auckland, Christchurch, Edenpark, Himilton, Napeir, Nelson
Total match 49
Total participants 14
Teams
  • Pool A:- England, Australia), Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, New Zealand     Afghanistan, Scotland
  • Pool B:- South Africa, India, Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland, UAE

 

Quarter final Match
NO. Won Lost
1 New Zealand West Indies (Cpt.Jason Holder)
2 South Africa (Cpt.AB de Villiers) Sri lanka (Cpt.Angelo Mathews)
3 Australia Pakistan (Cpt.Misbah-ul-Haq)
4 India (Dhoni) Bangladesh (Cpt.Mashrafe Mortaza)

bringing

Semi-Final Match
No. Won Lost venue
1 New Zealand South Africa Eden park
2 Australia India Sydney

 

Final Match
Won Lost venue result
Australia

Cpt. Michael Clarke

 New Zealand

Cpt. Brendon McCullum

 Melbourn Aus. Won by seven wickets

 

Awards
Man of the match James Faulkner (Australia)
Highest run Martin Guptil (New Zealand)
Highest wicket Mitchel Starc (Australia)

Factoids

  • ICC World Cup coins:  The dome-shaped silver coin. Price 5 dollars and in India Rs.13,000. It is minted by  Royal Australian Mint and New Zealand Post
  • Aussie Captain (Clarke) and Indian Captain (Dhoni) opined that in ODI-  Five fielder should be outside 30 yard circle in non-power play overs (in world cup they were four)
  • Roger Federer: A twitter picture of him admiring Indian cricket blue t-shirt has enraged pakistani fans so much that Roger had to apologize.
  • Daniel Vettori: This Left-arm spinner of New Zealand announced his retirement from 18-year career in ODI cricket, after World cup 2015.
  • Mustafa Kamal: Bangladeshi president in International Cricket Council (ICC) raised doubt in the integrity of umpires in World Cup quarter final 2015 match between India and Bangladesh. He wasn’t wasn’t allowed to give trophy to world cup winner Australia. Later he resigned in anguish.
  • Post World cup 2015: New Pak.Captain is Azhar Ali (Batsman) and Vice Captain Sarfaraz Ahmed (Wicket keeper)
  • So far 6 captains have lead Team India at World cup cricket: S. Venkatraghavan, M.S. Dhoni, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, M. Azharuddin, Kapil Dev.
  • Mauka Mauka ad campaign was created by Star Sports India, to poke fun at Pakistani fans.
  • Previous world cup’s mascot was Stumpy the elephant. But WC-2015 had no mascot, only logo.
Ranking after World Cup
Rank Team Batsman Bowler
1 Australia A.B. de Villiers Mitchell Starc
2 India Kumar Sangakkara Imran Tahir
3 South Africa Hashim Amla Saeed Ajmal
4 Sri lanka Virat Kohli Dale Steyn
5 New Zealand Tillakaratne Dilshan Sunil Narine

Indian Cricket in news:

  • Jagmohan Dalmiya (Bengal) replaced N.Srinivasan (Tamilnadu) as president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
  • Anurag Thakur is the new Secretary replacing Sanjay Patel.
  • Earlier IndianExpress reporter had written a piece of Virat bringing his g/f Anushka Sharma to cricket tour. Virat abused Hindustan Times reporter mistaking him for that Indianexpress report. Complaints lodged to ICC and BCCI.
  • Enforcement Directorate notices BCCI-IPL for alleged violation of FEMA rules during media rights in 2008.
  • Lalit Modi removed from Presidency of the Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA).
  • Karun Nair (Karnataka team) became the first batsman in 68 years to score a triple century in a Ranji Trophy final against Tamilnadu.
  • Kirket: Name of the planned movie on Bihari ex-cricketer Kirti Azad. Director Sonu  Jha.
  • IPL 2015: Delhi Daredevils bought Yuvraj for Rs.16 crores.

35th National Games

ICC cricket World Cup 2015 & National Games 2015 mascot

Time From 31st jan 2015 to 14th feb 2015
Venue
  • 34th: Ranchi
  • 35th: seven districts of Kerala namely Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alapuzha, Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Trissur and Kannur.
  • 36th: Goa
Motto ‘Get Set Play’
Mascot ‘Ammu’ (The Great Indian Hornbill, State Bird of Kerala)
Inaugurated by Union minister of urban development, Venkaiah Naydu
Goodwill Ambassador Sachin Tendulkar
Number of Sports 33

 

Top winners in 35th National games:
Rank Name of the State Gold won Silver won Bronze won Total
1 Services SCB 91 33 35 159
2 Kerala 54 48 60 162
3 Haryana 40 40 27 107

 

Top Athletes in 35th National Games
Rank Player(State) Medals Sports
1 Sajan Prakash (Kerala) 8 (6 Gold + 2 Silver)  Swimming
2 Rajina Kiro (Andman) 6 (5 Gold + 1 Silver) Canoeing & Kayaking
3 Inaocha Devi Mayanglambam 6 (5 Gold + 1 Silver) Canoeing & Kayaking

Football: AIFF Awards 2015

Player of the year
  • Sunil Chhetri (Male)
  • Bala Dev (Female)
Emerging player Sandesh Jhingan
Best referee Santosh Kumar
Best grassroots programme Western India Football Association
Long-time contribution to Indian footbal ONGC

AIFF President Praful Patel also announced Indian Super League (ISL) tournament for SAARC region

Tennis

Match Won Lost
Dubai Federer (Swiz) Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
ATP Argentina Rafael Nadal (Spain) Not important
  • WTA-Miami (US)
  • BNP Paribas, Indiawells
 Doubles: Sania Mirza (India) &  Martina Hingis (Swiz) Not important
BNP Paribas, Indiawells Novak Djokovic Federer
Rotterdam World Tennis Stan Wawrinka Not important
ATP Challenger Delhi Open title Somdev Devvarman Yuki Bhambri
  • Leander Paes and Martina Hingis met Modi and gave him autographed racquets used in winning grand slams at Australian Open.
  • Sania Mirza will lead the Indian Fed Cup team in the Asia Oceania group-II at  Hyderabad from April 2015.
  • Controversy surrounding the selection of Anil Khanna as the President of The All India Tennis Association (AITA)

Badminton

Match Won Lost
Swiz.Grand Prix, Basel K.Srikanth (India). Not important.
All England Open (M) Carolina Marin(Spain) Saina Nehwal (India). No Indian woman has won this match so far.
All England Open (M) Chen Long (China). P.Gopichand had won it in 2001 Not important.
Indian Open (F) Saina Ratchanok Intanon
Indian Open (M) K.Srikant Viktor Axelsen
  • Saina Nehwal got First spot in world ranking overtaking Chinese Li Xuerui. (although later she reverted back to spot 2 then again rose to #1….every week something new).
  • Saina thanks her current coach Vimal Kumar but not ex-coach P.Gopichand. Perhaps this “hubris” responsible for volatility in her ranking.

Other Sports

Athletics
  • Dutee Chand permitted to participate in international events. She was suspended  for participating in women’s events as found excessive testosterone in her during eligibility  test.
  • Baljinder shingh won a bronze medal in 20km Race Walking Championships at Nomi City in Japan
Chess
  • Zurich Chess 2015: #1: Hikaru Nakamura (USA). V.Anand stood at #2.
  • Grenke Classic Chess (at Baden-Baden, Germany): final winner Magnus Carlsen.
CWG 2022 Commonwealth games to be held in Durban, South Africa.
Deaths
  • Camille Muffat (Swimmer)and Alexis Vastine (Boxer): Both are former Olympic champions died in helicopter mishap during Casting of French reality TV show “Dropped” at  Vla Rioja province, in Argentina.
Formula One  Australian Grand prix: Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosber of Mercedes team won the race
Golf Harendra Gupta wins Golconda Masters at Hyderabad (6 lakh prize)
Hockey
  • Coach for Indian male hockey team: Dutchman Paul van Ass replaced Australia’s Terry Walsh.
  • Coach for Indian women hockey team: Anthony Mark Thornton replaced Neil Hawgood
  • Sardar Singh will lead the 18-member Indian men’s hockey team at the Sultan Azlan Shah tournament in Ipoh, Malaysia in April
  • India defeated Poland in Hero women’s Hockey World League at New Delhi.
Kayake
  • Kaustubh Khade (IIT Delhi alumnus) rowed kayake for 500 km from Mumbai to Goa in 18 days to enter in Limca Book of Records.
  • Charity money from this event, will be given to Magic Bus- an NGO for poor kids.
Shooting
  • Manavjit Singh Sandhu won the bronze medal in men’s trap at World Cup in Acapulco, Mexico.
  • But he did not make sufficient points to get Olympic quota.
Table tennis  Sharath Kamal won $1 lakh Asian cup tournament at Jaipur.

Government Schemes/Awards

Arjun Award

  • Its selection method revamped.
  • Now a Committee headed by retired SC/HC judge with noted persons associated with sports will decide the names.
  • Only 1 sportsperson from any given field- to avoid bias towards that field’s nominees.
  • More weightage to individual sports over team sports.
  • Meeting proceedings to be video graphed to ensure transparency.

Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar

  • Started in 2009. Four new categories inserted –
  • Identification and nurturing of budding talent,
  • Encouragement of sports through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
  • Employment of sportspersons and sports welfare measures
  • Sports for development.

TOPS(Target Olympics Podium Scheme)

  • Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports will help potential players with money and training to ensure maximum medals in Olympic 2016 and 2020
  • Total Estimated players-75
  • Total estimated budget  is around Rs. 40 to 45 crores till Olympics 2016
  • As of now selected plays are 45 from sports namely athletics, badminton, boxing, shooting, wrestling and sailing
  • Problem: the selected “beneficiary” player can’t receive money from any other private body. And If he wants to quit TOPS scheme, he needs 30-day notice and refund entire grant he got!
  • Later Sports minister clarified that TOPS will not deny external help from NGO or foundations.

 

Biggest beneficiaries of TOPS scheme
1.12 crores each
  • Discus thrower Vikas Gowda
  • shooters Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang, Sanjeev Rajput and Manavjit Sandhu
90 lakh each
  • Saina Nehwal, P.V. Sindhu, P. Kashyap and K. Srikanth
  • all four are badminton players

Government Funding to Sports

  • The Government has made Three category in sports- (1) high (2) priority (3)others.
  • They’ll get financial assistance in decreasing order.
  • Classification based on (1) Popularity among mass  (2) Performance in last events
High priority sport
  • Full  funding by govt. in national and international event.
  • Athletics, badminton, hockey, shooting, archery, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling, boxing.
Priority sports
  • Either popular or won medals in last Olympic or Asian games.
  • Basketball, billiards & snooker, bridge, chess, cycling, equestrian, football, golf, judo, kabaddi, kayaking & canoeing, Paralympic rowing, school games, Special Olympic Bharat, squash, swimming, table tennis, volleyball, wushu, yachting, gymnastics, taekwondo, sepak takraw, deaf sports.
Others
  • Government willnot give them financial help
  • Handball, atya patya, ball badminton, baseball, body-building, carrom, cycle polo, fencing, jump rope, karate-do, kho-kho, netball, powerlifting, roll ball, roller skating, shooting ball, soft tennis, softball, tennikoit, tennis-ball cricket, tenpin bowling, tug-of war, winter games, rugby, motorsports.

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