Manisha Kalyan became the first Indian footballer to feature in a UEFA Women's Champions League match as she made her debut for top-tier Cypriot club Apollon Ladies FC on Thursday(18th Aug 2022).

 

Manisha Kalyan took the field in the 60th minute at the Makareio Stadium in Engomi, Cyprus, for Apollon Ladies FC against Latvia’s SFK Riga in the UEFA Women's Champions League 2022-23 qualifying round. The 20-year-old Manisha came on as a substitute for Cyprus international Marilena Georgiou.

 

Though Manisha Kalyan did not get on the scoresheet, Apollon Ladies FC went on to win the all-important game 3-0. They will play Swiss club FC Zurich in the next round.

 

Manisha Kalyan, who was named the AIFF Women’s Footballer of the Year for 2021-22, is fast becoming one of India’s top women’s football players.

 

The Punjab-born striker made her international debut at the age of 17 against Hong Kong in January 2019. The young striker shot to fame after scoring a goal against Brazil in November 2021. India went on to lose the match 6-1 but Manisha Kalyan caught the attention of the international clubs after an impressive performance.

 

Manisha Kalyan represented Gokulam Kerala in the Indian Women’s League (IWL) for three seasons before parting ways earlier this year. She helped the Malabarians win the title twice, in 2019-20 and 2021-22, during her stay there.

 

The youngster signed a multi-year contract with Apollon Ladies FC in July this year, making her one of the few Indian women footballers alongside the likes of Bala Devi, Aditi Chauhan and Ashalata Devi to be recruited by a foreign club..

Source : Olympics

The International Basketball Federation FIBA is scheduled to host the FIBA U18 Women’s Asian Championship at Sree Kanteerva and Koramangala Indoor stadiums in "Bengaluru" from 5th September 2022 to 11th September 2022. As many as 16 countries will participate in the event.

 

Youth Empowerment and Sports minister Dr C Narayana Gowda told reporters on Thursday(18th Aug 2022) that preparations for the event were on track.

The championship will be in two divisions -- A and B.

Division A are : China, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea, Chinese, Taipei, Australia and New Zealand. 

Division B are : Hong Kong, Jordan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mongolia, Philippines, Samoa and Thailand.

 

Division A  will be held at Kanteerva Indoor Stadium and Division B at Koramangala Indoor Stadium. The first four teams from the championship will qualify for the FIBA U19 Women’s World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in Madrid, Spain, in July 2023.

 

Earlier, the Indian U18 men’s basketball team was felicitated with kits. The team will travel to Tehran in Iran on Friday for the men’s championship. It is placed in Group B along with China and Korea..

Source : New Indian Express

The 131st edition of the historic Durand Cup begins on August 16th This year’s edition will be held across three cities: Kolkata, Guwahati and Imphal. Group A and B matches will be held in Kolkata, while Group C and D matches will be conducted in Imphal and Guwahati.. Asia’s oldest football tournament signifies the beginning of the football season in India. The tournament opener will be played at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata and the final will be held on September 18 at the same venue.

 

The competition’s future iteration will pit 20 teams (eleven ISL teams, five I-League teams, and four teams from the Indian Armed Forces) competing for the coveted title. All the teams have been divided into four groups, each comprising five teams.


Source : News18

Meghalaya is all set to host the upcoming 2nd edition of the North East Olympics from October the 30th to November the 6th, 2022 in Shillong.

 

A joint meeting of the North East Organising Committee, Meghalaya Department of Sports and Youth Affairs, and the North East Olympic Association was held last evening to finalize the list of sports disciplines. The first edition of Games was held in Manipur in 2018, with 12 disciplines.

 

Following the meeting, Sports & Youth Affairs Minister Banteidor Lyngdoh stated that the disciplines selected were decided based on the availability of infrastructure and on the advice of the Meghalaya State Olympic Association. He said this edition of the Games will be special as Meghalaya is celebrating the 50th year of its Statehood.

 

In this edition, about 4,000 participants from eight North Eastern States will be competing in 18 disciplines at 13 venues spread across Shillong. Participants will be competing in disciplines, such as archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, football, judo, karate, shooting, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, wushu, cycling (Mountain Bike), golf, weightlifting and wrestling..

Source : News on Air

The much-awaited Women's IPL will be starting from March 2023 to be held in a one-month window and in all likelihood with five teams, a senior BCCI official confirmed the development on Friday(12th Aug 2022).

 

The BCCI bigwigs have discussed the issue and a March window has been found for the tournament after the Women's T20 World Cup in South Africa.

 

BCCI president Sourav Ganguly and secretary Jay Shah in separate interviews to PTI had earlier confirmed that 2023 is the year when WIPL would start..

Source : The Hindu

The 4th edition of Tata Steel Chess India was announced 11th Aug 2022 with the introduction of a Women’s Edition of the tournament. The open tournament has been on for three editions now and in its fourth edition, TSCI will have a women’s tournament with the same format – rapid and blitz. The tournament will take place from November 29 – December 4, 2022 in Kolkata.

 

Top International Grandmasters, top Indian men and women Grandmasters, young Indian talents and Viswanathan Anand as the ambassador and advisor of the tournament will enrich this year’s competition. For the first time in the history of the game, the prize fund for both the men’s and women’s category will be equal.

 

Women Grandmasters who have already confirmed their participation are Anna and Mariya Muzychuk from Ukraine, Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia and Alina Kashlinskaya from Poland. Indian chess superstars Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli will be joined by rising star Vaishali R – all of who were a part of the Bronze-winning team at the recently concluded Chess Olympiad in Chennai.

 

Mr. Viswanathan Anand, Ambassador of Tata Steel Chess India on the occasion said, “I am extremely delighted that today chess is considered as a mainstream sport. Tournaments like Tata Steel Chess India where our young players fight it out with International Grandmasters really helps the cause of producing newer champions. Today, India is considered as chess power-house with both men and women excelling in the sport. The introduction of the women’s tournament with equal prize money as the men category is a welcome move and an excellent initiative and we hope it is as well-received by the chess enthusiasts. Chess is and should be an equal sport.”

 

Speaking on the occasion Mr. Chanakya Chaudhary, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel said, “We are delighted to announce that this year's edition of Tata Steel Chess India will witness the launch of a Women's Tournament as well.  What better year to start this than FIDE’s  ‘Year Of The Woman In Chess .’   

The event will give young Indian talent the opportunity to play against top International Grandmasters. Tata Steel Chess India is part of Tata Steel’s continuous and conscious effort to build an equitable and diverse environment while engaging with communities through meaningful activities. We are encouraged by the enthusiasm and participation we have received over the past years and are determined to make this world class chess competition even better.”

 

Ms. Tania Sachdev expressed their happiness over the introduction of women category in Tata Steel Chess India. She echoed that the introduction of equality in the prize amount by Tata Steel Chess India will encourage more women to take up the sport as a profession..

Source : Tatasteel

1st Khelo India Women's Hockey League under-16 will be held at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi between 16th and 23rd of this month. According to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, a total of 16 teams from across the country are participating. A total of 56 matches will be played and over 300 players will compete in Phase 1 of the league.

 

The Sports Authority of India has allocated a total of 53.72 lakh rupees for 3 phases of the competition, which includes Prize money of 15.5 lakh rupees.

 

The matches are scheduled to start at 6:30 am each day with the final match scheduled at 5 pm. 19th of this month is kept as the rest day.

 

Phase 1 and 2 of the Khelo India Women’s Hockey League U-16 will be in a round-robin format. The final ranking of teams will be determined after the completion of first 2 phases. Phase 3 will consist of classification matches where each team will play a minimum of 3 matches..

Source : News on Air

Former West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard became the first cricketer to play 600 T20 matches on Monday(8th August 2022).

 

* The hard-hitting batter achieved this landmark during his side's London Spirit's match against Manchester Originals during ongoing The Hundred tournament at Lord's.

 

* Pollard made sure to make the occasion memorable. He smashed an unbeaten 34 runs off just 11 balls consisting of one four and four big sixes.

 

* Pollard has some brilliant T20I stats. He has scored 11,723 runs across 600 games at an average of 31.34. He has the best individual performance of 104. Pollard has scored one century and 56 half-centuries in the format. He has also captured 309 wickets with best bowling figures of 4/15.

 

* Over the years Pollard has represented many T20 teams/franchises, most notably West Indies, domestic team Trinidad and Tobago, Mumbai Indians in Indian Premier League (IPL), Adelaide Strikers and Melbourne Renegades in Big Bash League, Dhaka Gladiators and Dhaka Dynamites in Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), Karachi Kings, Multan Sultans and Peshawar Zalmi in Pakistan Super League, Trinbago Knight Riders in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) etc.

 

* Behind him are players Dwayne Bravo (543 matches), Shoaib Malik (472), Chris Gayle (463) and Ravi Bopara (426).

 

* Coming to the match, Pollard's assault powered his team 160/6 in 100 balls. Contributions also came from captain Eoin Morgan (37) and opener Zak Crawley (41). Manchester Originals could manage only 108 runs before they ran out of batters.Phil Salt was its top scorer with 36 runs while Jordan Thompson 4/21 was the leading bowler for the London Spirit team. London Spirit won the game by 52 runs..

Source : Business Standard

Real Madrid claimed the 2022-23 season's first trophy with a comfortable 2-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Super Cup in Helsinki, Finland early Thursday(11th Aug 2022) morning. 

 

Los Blancos thus joined Barcelona and AC Milan as the most successful teams, with five wins each. David Alava scored the opener in the 37th minute from a Casemiro set-up then Karim Benzema doubled the lead in the 65th with an assist from Vinicious Jr. Carlo Ancelotti's side had defeated Liverpool to win the UEFA Champions League in May, while Oliver Glasner side got the the better of Frankfurt Rangers in the UEFA Europa League final.

Source : Outlookindia

Uzbekistan, one of the youngest teams on the roster, defeated rating favourites the Netherlands by 2.5-1.5, securing the gold medal.

 

Armenia gets the silver medal, while India B, formed by young talents, outpaced its seniors and snatched the bronze.

 

History was made in the open section of the FIDE Chess Olympiad, which came to an end this morning in Chennai, India..

Source : Chessbase