New Delhi, July 22
Badminton could be the next big thing in Indian sport. Indian players have beaten the best in the world in badminton, though not consistently. Saina Nehwal’s rise, culminating in an Olympics bronze in London, has put a halo around the game in the country.

And more and more youngsters are getting attracted to the game as Indian youngsters are making their marks on the world stage, winning titles and going up in rankings.

Thus, the inaugural edition of the $1million Indian Badminton League (IBL) is expected to give the sport a big boost. The keen bidding witnessed to bag the Indian players for unheard-of prices in auction here today was hugely motivating and encouraging.

That Saina was bought for a whopping $120,000 by the Hyderabad Hotspots was big news. India still needs to go some distance to bridge the gap with the best in the world, as was evident from the top men’s player in the world Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia going for $135,000, bought by Mumbai Masters — only $10,000 more than the winning bid on Saina.

Yet, Indian players were in great demand, and most of the money put under the hammer went into the Indian kitty. This was big news not only for the players concerned, but for the franchises and the Badminton Association of India as well, as the dipping value of rupee against dollar will provide relief to the franchises who have bought the Indian stars on a higher price, as each franchisee was given a bidding upper limit of $275000 (around Rs 1.5 crore).

BAI president Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta said the clout the Indian players enjoyed at the auction proved the growing popularity of the game in the country. “A generous amount has been spent on the Indian players by the franchises, which is a very positive sign for the players and the sport as a whole. Money is pouring into the Indian players’ pockets as other than the auction, they would also be getting endorsement deals,” explained Das Gupta.

“Indian players got a good deal as such big money was never there in badminton, though I was surprised that some of the top foreign players could not fetch the amount they were expected to go for,” noted former All-England champion, IBL Governing Council member and chief national coach Pullela Gopichand. Gopi was happy that the bidding process was highly professional as the team owners came after doing their homework well. “The bidding was very precise, mature and balanced. The teams looked for overall quality of the team as every player was important. It was fantastic,” exulted Gopi.

TPS Puri, a former player, long-time national coach and now BAI vice-president in charge of administration, said the IBL will keep badminton in the limelight. “Everybody seems happy with the IBL auction. It is something vastly different from what we have seen and experienced in the country,” he added.

The big money and the recruitment of foreign coaches by some of the franchises will give the IBL a very competitive and sharp edge, though the franchises should have deep pockets to sustain the league in the long run, as it is not clear how they would get back the crores they would be investing.

“The team owners may not make much money, but they will surely get much mileage. This was for the first time that so much money has come into badminton, and we should applaud the team owners’ great gesture in this regard,” observed former French and Dutch open champion Vimal Kumar, who is the coach of Bangalore franchise Banga Beats. “This is indeed a great initiative, which is expected to give the game a big push across the country.”

The IBL, featuring six franchises, will be played across six cities on a home and away basis from August 14 to 31. Mumbai Masters, Hyderabad Hotshots, Pune Pistons, Banga Beats, Lucknow Warriors and Delhi Smashers are the teams in fray.

The presence of star names from other sports like Sania Mirza and shooter Gagan Narang, Telugu movie super star Nagarjuna and former Hyderabad Ranji player Chamundeshwar, who along with Sunil Gavaskar have bought the Mumbai franchise, was a clear indication that the IBL was set for a big take-off, as the idea was to give badminton an IPL-style makeover to make it popular.

Indian players got a good deal... though I was surprised that some of the top foreigners could not fetch the amount they were expected to go for.
— P Gopichand, Former India player

It’s for the first time so much money has come into the sport; we should applaud owners' great gesture in this regard.
— Vimal Kumar, Former India player

New Delhi, July 22
World No 2 Saina Nehwal was snapped up by Hyderabad Hotshots for a whopping $120,000 (around Rs 71,27,796 lakh) in the Indian Badminton League (IBL) auction here today. There was keen bidding for Saina, particularly between Hyderabad and Lucknow Warriors, though eventually her domiciled State team won the wager, as Lucknow opted to settle for a balanced team, instead of splurging on an icon player.

But the biggest price was put on World No 1 men's player Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who was bought by Mumbai Masters for $135,000.

The six icon players— Saina, Lee Chong, Parupally Kashyap, P.V.Sindhu, Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponappa— had a base price of $50,000, but at the franchisee-meeting yesterday, it was decided to slash the price of Jwala and Ashwini to $ 25,000 as they would not be playing in the singles. Except these two, all other icon players fetched good money. Pune invested $90,000 on German Juliane Schenk from a base price of $50,000 while they paid $44,000 for Vietnamese player Nyugen Tien Minh, whose base price was only $25,000.

Surprisingly, former Olympic and world champion Taufik Hidayat went for his base price, bought byHyderabad.

Hyderabad Hotshots: Saina Nehwal, Taufik Hidayat, Ajay Jayaram, V Shem Goh, Tarun Kona, Pradenya Gadre, Khim Wah Lim, Tanongsak, Kanthi Visalakshi and Subhankar Dey.

Delhi Samshers: Jwala Gutta, Wong Wing Ki, H. S Prannoy, Sai Praneeth, Arundhati Panthawane, Boon Hoeng Tan, Kien Keat Koo, V Diju, Nichaon Jindapon and Prajakta Sawant.

Mumbai Masters: Lee Chong Wei, Marc Zweibler, Tine Baun, Pranav Jerry Chopra, Manu Attri, Siki Reddy, P.C.Thulasi, Vladimir Ivanov, Rasika Raje and Sumeet Reddy.

Pune Pistons: Ashwini Ponappa, Nyugen Tien Minh, Saurabh Verma, Anup Sridhar, Juliane Schenk, Joachiam Fischer Nielsen, Sanave Thomas, Arun Vishnu, Wee Kion Tan and Rupesh Kumar.

Lucknow Warriors: PV Sindhu, Weng Fei Chong, Guru Sai Dutt, K Srikanth, Sapsiree, Ruthvika Shivani, Marcis Kido, Maneepong Jongjit, K Maneesha and Nanda Gopal.

Banga Beats: P.Kashyap, Hu Yun, Tai Tzu Ying, Carolina Marin, Carston Margensen, Akshay Dewalkar, Aparna Balan, Aditya Prakash, Arvind Bhat and J Meghana.

London, July 22
Michael Clarke vowed to have the last laugh on all those who mocked his suggestion Australia could still win the Ashes after a crushing defeat at Lord's.

Australia's main problem, as it was in a far narrower 14-run reverse in the first Test at Trent Bridge, was a lack of runs from their specialist batsmen.

Clarke made 51 on Sunday but that only took his average for the series to 25.50, with none of the tourists having made an individual hundred in the first two Tests. The last time any side came from 2-0 down to win the Ashes was in 1936/37 when Australia, inspired by Don Bradman eventually won 3-2 on home soil. However, despite the weight of history against him, Clarke said: “I'm still confident we can win this series. “I know a lot of the crowd laughed when I said that, and rightly so with the position we are in right now, but all of our top order have made a fifty and we need someone who can go on and make a big hundred — as England have done.

“We need to perform better to win this third Test but we have time to prepare,” added Clarke, with Australia set to play a three-day tour match against Sussex starting Friday before facing England again at Old Trafford, where the next Ashes encounter gets underway on August 1.

“Our performance with the bat was unacceptable. The wicket was very good for batting. We had a great opportunity but we let ourselves down,” Clarke added.

Melbourne, July 22
Spin legend Shane Warne retired from the Big Bash Twenty20 League, thereby bringing an end to his competitive cricket career, citing business, family and commentary commitments across two continents.

"I think the time is right for me to hang up my Big Bash boots - juggling business, family and commentary commitments across two continents is not easy," Warne said.

"I've always loved the game but now it's time to observe. It's going to be a huge summer for Australian cricket. I'm really looking forward to it and will be closely following the Melbourne Stars," he added. The 43-year-old, who quit Test cricket with 708 wickets in 2007, has been active in domestic Twenty20 leagues. He captained the unheralded Rajasthan Royals to the inaugural IPL title in 2008.

After four seasons in the IPL, Warne signed up for Melbourne Stars. — PTI

New Delhi, July 22
Thirteen years after the match fixing scandal involving Hansie Cronje rocked the cricket world, Delhi Police today filed a charge sheet in a court here naming the former South African captain and five others, including Krishan Kumar- brother of T-Series founder Gulshan Kumar.

The charge sheet was filed before link magistrate Akash Jain as Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Amit Bansal was on leave. The 90-page charge sheet will come up for consideration tomorrow before CMM Bansal.

Police has named Cronje, who was killed in a plane crash in 2002, in column 2 of the charge sheet — which lists the accused who are dead or against whom proceedings are abated.

London-based bookie Sanjeev Chawla, bookie Manmohan Khattar, T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar's brother Krishan Kumar, Delhi-based bookie Rajesh Kalra and Sunil Dara alias Bittoo have also been named as accused. No other cricketer has been named in the charge sheet. According to police sources, the charge sheet is mostly based on King's Commission report, confession of Hansie Cronje and telephonic intercepts.

They said Chawla and Khattar are hiding in UK and US respectively. Police will issue red corner notices against them and begin the process of their extradition after filing the charge sheet, they said.

It was in April 2000 that the Crime Branch of Delhi Police had stumbled upon the match fixing scandal when they intercepted calls of a London-based bookie.

In May this year, during the investigation in the spot-fixing case in which police have arrested 29 people including three cricket players — S Sreesanth, Ankeet Chavan and Ajit Chandila—the attention of the investigators was drawn to a pending case in which Cronje and others were named. — PTI

New Delhi, July 22
Powered by Deepika Kumari’s gold and bronze medal performances on the concluding day, India finished fourth in the Archery World Cup Stage 3 in Medellin, Colombia.

The world number three recurve archer Deepika shot four perfect 10s in windy conditions to lead India to a 201-186 thrashing of China for the team gold medal on Sunday. The World No 3 kept her poise even as her team-mates struggled in windy conditions. It was India’s first World Cup team gold since Shanghai 2011.

Later, Deepika paired up with Atanu Das to win the mixed team bronze with a comfortable 18-point margin (150-132) against the Mexicans.

India thus finished fourth with one gold and two bronze as the US topped the standings with nine medals (2-5-2), while China (2-1-2) and Colombia (1-1-0) were second and third respectively. — PTI

New Delhi, July 22
Sports Minister Jitendra Singh has sent the draft of the National Sports Development Bill to the leaders of various political parties of the both the Houses and eminent sportspersons, inviting their comments on the proposed bill.

The Union Council of Ministers, Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, States/UTs Sports Ministers, Standing Committee/Consultative Members of MYAS (Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports) have been sent the Draft Sports Bill for their views. In his letter, Mr. Jitendra stressed on the importance of bringing about transparency and good governance in sports in the country. “The Government has been highlighting for some time now the need for bringing about reforms in the management and governance of sports in order to make it more responsive, responsible and result—oriented,” said Mr. Jitendra said in the letter.

A Working Group constituted by the Government under the Chairmanship of Justice (Retd.) Mukul Mudgal submitted the draft of the bill earlier this month. The draft bill was then placed on the website of the Ministry (www.yas.nic.in) inviting comments from all stake-holders as well as general public latest by July 31.

The Ministry is also forwarding the draft bill to various National Sports Federations for their comments/views. After incorporating the comments received from all sources, the Ministry will forward the draft bill to the IOC for its views. — PTI

Paris, July 22
I won't let you down like Lance Armstrong. This Tour de France champion is for real. That, in so many words, is the promise Chris Froome made as the newest winner of cycling's showcase race so badly hurt over the years by riders who doped to win it.

Because of their deceit, Froome faced a series of questions as he dominated rivals over three weeks of racing, all centered on the same key concern: Can we believe in you?

Yes, he insisted. The sport is changing, he argued. He handled the scrutiny politely and adroitly. He said he understood the skepticism. And on the podium in Paris, his wiry frame wrapped in his canary yellow jersey, Froome asked the guardians of the 110-year-old race and all those who love it to trust him.

“This is one yellow jersey that will stand the test of time,” he said. In two years, Britain has had two winners: Bradley Wiggins in 2012 and now Froome, a cooler, calmer, more understated but no less determined character than his Sky teammate with famous sideburns.

Froome rode into Paris in style: Riders pedaled up to him to offer congratulations; he sipped from a flute of champagne; a Tour organizer stuck an arm from his car window to shake Froome's hand. He dedicated his victory to his late mother, Jane, who died in 2008.

“Without her encouragement to follow my dreams I would probably be at home watching on TV,” he said.

Froome took the race lead on Stage 8 in the Pyrenees, never relinquished it and vigorously fended off rivals whose concerted challenges turned this 100th Tour into a thriller. — Agencies 

Chandigarh, July 22
Phil Mickleson won the Open Championship at Muirfield on Sunday and for someone who is at the top of the World Rankings and quite familiar with winning major championships, it was surprising to see him and his long time caddie break down in tears.

It makes one realize that even though the rewards for playing well are tremendous these days, it is the thrill of achievement that keeps these top sportsmen going. After a while it is about much more than just winning to accumulate the big bucks.

This was a win that Mickleson and his caddie -theirs is the longest caddie-player relationship in the world - have always wanted to win. He came off a victory at the Scottish Open last week and he made four birdies in the last six holes to pull ahead of the field and ensure his name is engraved on the Claret Jug. And once it was all over he just could not hold back the tears and the emotion. He pulled his family in an embrace and they stood huddled together for a while as the world watched.

Greg Norman once said that 'if it was just for the money then many sportsmen would give up after earning their first million dollars.'

Jeev Milkha Singh agrees. He feels that, "it is the thrill of achieving something great, the thrill of the competition and the high of eventually achieving your goals and winning that is addictive," says Jeev who travels almost 35 weeks a year to play tournaments in Asia, Europe and America.

"The way Phil won the British Open is very impressive. It is great to see that at 43, Mickleson is still a force to reckon with in the game of golf," says Jeev, who played college golf with him.

"Mickleson has maintained his standing in the world of golf. It is the desire to do something that very few people have done before, achieve low scores and reach targets that you work towards that keeps you motivated that makes you keep coming back for more," says Uttam Singh Mundy, Director PGTI. "On the Indian tour it is amazing to see players like Mukesh Kumar and Ashok Kumar who came out of the grass root levels and have won numerous tournaments but are still completely focused and committed to winning," he also adds.

The country's leading lady professional golfer Smriti Mehra says the same. "The feeling I get when I am in the competitive mode is what keeps me motivated. I believe my journey in golf still has a long way to go."

Chandigarh, July 22
It was with great shock and sadness that the Indian golfing community heard of the demise of 32-year-old Zai Kipgen. The Delhi based professional golfer suffered a cardiac arrest at his residence late Friday night and his sudden loss left his family, friends and the golfing community of the Delhi Golf Course stunned.

A very talent amateur player, Zai was always charming and had a cheerful personality. He represented India as a junior and went to Rollins college in Florida. He ranked number one in the country in the 13-17 years age group when he was a junior and also represented Asia twice at the Doug Saunders World Cup finals in Scotland.

At 22, he won the Hyundai-MGC Open in Chennai in 2001 a year after he had a terrible car crash that almost left him crippled. In 2005 he acquired his teaching certificate and had been teaching at the Delhi Golf Club.

“It was quite a shock and he will be missed by all, specially his family and friends. I have known Zai since he was 12-years-old and he was a great natural talent, had the best rhythm and could control ball flight very well. Off the course, he was a great guy to hang with, a great laugh,” said Gursimran Sethi, a friend of Zai's. “When I started playing golf as a sub-junior, Zai was one of the best juniors in the country and he used to put us all to shame with the way he played,” he adds. “He came back after a major accident to win a PGAI tournament and that just goes to show his talent.”

Shruti Khanna, a friend and golfing partner, said, “He had not been feeling well for a few days and it seems that he sensed he was not going to be around for long as he called up all his friends within the last few days and said goodbye in his own way,”

“It is really sad as he had got his life in order and was giving lessons at the club," she adds. “It has been a shock for everyone.”

Jeev Milkha Singh also adds that, “it is very sad and will be a great loss for the golfing community. His charm and charisma will be missed.” “It is a sad loss as he was a very talented golfer," says Uttam Singh Mundy, Director PGTI. I remember the first year he turned pro he won an event on the tour.”

BRIEFLY

New Delhi
Paralympian Jhajharia wins gold in Worlds: Javelin thrower Devendra Jhajharia won a gold medal at the IPC Athletics World Championships in Lyon, France.Jhajharia, who got the Padma Shri award last year, set a new meet record in the F42 men's event by throwing a distance of 57.04m yesterday. He comfortably surpassed the old record of 55.90m of Chunliang Guo of China created at the 2011 World Championships in New Zealand.This was India's first medal at the ongoing championships. He is a one-armed javelin thrower from Rajasthan. He had won gold medal in the javelin throw at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens.The Paralympic Committee of India announced cash prize of Rs. 5 Lakh to him.

New Delhi
Boppana is World No 3: Rohan Bopanna became world number three player in the world with a jump of two places in the latest ATP ranking chart.Bopanna is behind world's most formidable players, American twins Mike and Bob Bryan. After his Wimbledon semifinal appearance, Bopanna had become country's highest ranked player at number five.

New Delhi
Make me coach, I can deliver in a year: Pillay: Former captain Dhanraj Pillay has expressed his desire to be the coach of the Indian hockey team and claims that, if given a free hand, he can deliver results within a year."Indian hockey does not need a foreign coach. We have been spending a lot of money on foreign coaches but from Gerhard Rach (in 2004 Athens) to Michael Nobbs (2012 London Olympics), the outcome is the same. Indian hockey is back to square one and we are now struggling to qualify for World Cup," Pillay said. — PTI

New Delhi
Grover, Suthirtha win gold medals at South Asian TT: Teenager Sudhanshu Grover beat Abhishek Yadav 4-3 to win the junior boys singles title, while Suthirtha Mukherjee beat Manika Batra 4-2 to win the junior girls title at the South Asian Junior TT Championships.

New Delhi
Judo Olympian Brojeshori Devi passes away: 32-year-old olympian judo player, L Brojeshori Devi of Central Reserve Police Force, passed away in Coimbatore. She won the gold medal in the South Asian Games twice and participated in 2000 Sydney Olympics. — Agencies