India and Saudi Arabia to compete for 2027 AFC Asian Cup hosting rights

India and Saudi Arabia will compete for the hosting rights of the 2027 Asian Cup as three other interested countries withdrew their bids, the AFC announced on Monday.

If India wins the bid, it will be the first time the country will host a continental showpiece event. Saudi Arabia has won the continental title three times but never hosted the tournament.

Iran withdrew its bid a few days back while Uzbekistan was out of the race in December 2020.

Qatar, the third interested nation, confirmed as the host federation for next year’s AFC Asian Cup, withdrew the bid for the 2027 edition.

“The AFC Executive Committee considered the bid proposals for the AFC Asian Cup 2027 and selected the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation (SAFF) as the final two bidders,” the AFC said in a statement.

The next host will be decided by the AFC Congress at its next meeting in February.

India had joined the race for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, but were dropped early in October 2018. Since successfully staging the Men’s Under-17 World Cup in 2017, India is hosting the ongoing Under-17 Women’s World Cup.

“The decision closes QFA’s bid proposals, which were withdrawn from the 2027 race following the successful 2023 bid in accordance with applicable bidding rules,” the statement said.

“Again, we thank our three member associations – All India Football Federation, Qatar Football Federation and Saudi Arabian Football Federation – for submitting strong bids to host the AFC Asian Cup 2027.

AFC President Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al said, “At the All India Football Federation and the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, we have two exemplary bids, and I am confident that the Qatar Football Federation will strengthen the foundation for the creation of the final 2027 hosts. ” Khalifa said.

Originally published at Pen 18

carlsen: 16-year-old Indian GM D Gukesh stuns Magnus Carlsen in Aimchess Rapid chess

Teenage Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh became the youngest player to beat world champion by defeating Magnus Carlsen in the ninth round of the preliminary stage of the Emches Rapid online chess tournament. The 16-year-old from Chennai beat world number one with white pieces early on Monday to move up Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda (25 points) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 23 points) after 12th to 21 points. . Round.

Gukesh’s removal of the world champion in 29 moves came a day after his 19-year-old compatriot Arjun Arigasi registered his maiden win over the world champion.

“Gukesh becomes the youngest player to beat Magnus since the World Cup! Salute to the 16-year-old Indian superstar,” Meltwater Champions Chess Tour of which AmChess is part of the Rapid event, said on his Twitter feed.

Gukesh is 16 years 4 months 20 days old, while the previous record before his victory was R Pragyanandana’s 39-move victory over Carlsen at the AirThings Masters in February. Prague was 16 years 6 months 10 days old when they defeated world No.

After this momentous victory this Indian was quoted as saying: “It’s always special to beat Magnus, but I wasn’t too proud of that game.”

Gukesh suffered a setback in Round 10 when he lost to Duda but made a spectacular comeback to defeat Mamedyarov and Erik Hansen in the next two rounds.

Arigasi has the same number of points (21) as Gukesh and is in fourth place as the race for a spot in the knockout stage draws closer.

The 19-year-old Arigasi started the third day of the preliminaries with a loss to Mamedyarov before scoring goals on Hansen and the talented German Vincent Keimer. However, a defeat in the 12th round at the hands of fellow Indian GM Aditya Mittal spoiled the good days.

Gukesh continued what has been a stellar year so far for the young Indian players as he became the third player to surpass Carlsen after Pragyananand and Arigasi to do so in the Julius Baer Generation Cup online event last month.

Gukesh and Erigasi undertook their brilliance and won, with the other Indian-knowns Santosh Gujrati, Aditya Mittal and P Harikrishna failing to impress.

Gujrati is ranked 10th and is out of the qualification range for the knockouts with 14 points. He lost two of his four games to Duda and Hansen. He drew against Mamedyarov before ending the day with a win over Keimer.

Mittal (12 points) is ranked 12th. He upset Arrigasi in Round 12 after losing his last three games to Anish Giri (Netherlands), Richard Rapport and David Anton Guizarro in rounds 9, 10 and 11 respectively.

Harikrishna is ranked 15th after 12 rounds of play and is out of the race to reach the quarter-finals. However, to his credit, he held Carlsen to a 10th round draw in a 76-move match.

World champion Carlsen is fifth after a quiet day. After losing to Gukesh, he drew against Harikrishna and World Rapid Champion Nodirkbek Abdusatorov and finished with a win over Daniel Naroditsky.

Gujrati had an impressive victory over world rapid champion Abdusatorov, but drew against Grandelius and Naroditsky and lost at the hands of Carlsen to hold him back.

The Amches Rapid tournament is part of the Meltwater Champions Tour and features 16 players, including five from India. After a 15-round preliminary round, the top eight qualify for the knockouts.

Originally published at Pen 18

Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi beats world champion Magnus Carlsen in Aimchess Rapid tourney

Originally published at Pen 18

sourav ganguly: Outgoing BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly set to become CAB president again – The Economic Times Video

Outgoing BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly will return as the president of his state unit, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), the former India captain said on Saturday. Ganguly, who had to step down from the post of BCCI president as there is no precedent to continue at the top post for more than three years, was the CAB president for four years between 2015 and 2019 before joining the apex body.

Originally published at Pen 18

T20 World Cup: Bigger boundaries, true bounce and no dew make it a level playing field

If a T20 event turns out to be predictable, it is probably one of the most boring formats of all. And while it is an external factor that affects the result, it does poorly on tournaments. The same happened during last year’s T20 World Cup in Dubai and more recently in the Asia Cup, except in the final where Sri Lanka overcame all odds to beat Pakistan. In most cases, however, it was ‘win the toss, bowl first and win the match’. India suffered losses in both these tournaments and it is unfair for any team to be on the receiving end of a situation like this.

At the same time, Australia is likely to be separated. The toss, it may be expected, will not play a role or play a minor role in influencing the outcome of a match. Wickets are expected to be perfect at most places and with dew not being a factor, this T20 World Cup will be a level playing field in every sense. It will be about form and with outside factors having little impact on the performance of the team that day.

It is also important in Australia that all kinds of players – batsmen, fast bowlers and spin bowlers – will have a role. While the batsmen will get value for their shots and also have the option to rotate the strike in larger grounds, in most cases the fast bowlers will get the good carry first. From the evidence, there is bounce and carry at almost all places and the hit-the-deck bowlers should do well to take advantage of it. In India’s first warm-up match, the fast bowlers Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Arshdeep Singh picked up the pace early in the day and Hardik Pandya was able to bounce the ball quite early in the innings in the second.

The spinners are also expected to play a key role as Australia have huge grounds. When you play in smaller stadiums like Sharjah, spinners are often restricted to participants only.

Even mishits clear the boundary rope and slow bowlers often find themselves on the receiving end. This cannot happen in Australia. Someone with skills like Yuzvendra Chahal or Ravichandran Ashwin will have enough cushion to pick up wickets. For example, Rashid Khan has performed extremely well in Australia’s T20 competition, the Big Bash League.

In fact, Australia has the second lowest boundary percentage in T20 cricket in the last two years. According to ESPNcricinfo, only 54.1% of runs in Australia are scored in fours and sixes, the second lowest after South Africa (51.7%). In short, the conditions will not determine the outcome of the Games. Teams with versatility and balance will have an advantage and this is where the tournament can really live up to the bill of being an open competition that anyone can win.

Nothing could be better for India than playing the first match in Melbourne. The top order, unlike England or Australia, is more dependent on picking timely and early intervals than outright power hitting. For example, someone like Virat Kohli is a master at taking gaps and rotating the strike. If only Tim Davids of the world shines in the format, the skill becomes redundant. Skill over power will determine who does better in Melbourne. Maybe that’s why Jasprit Bumrah will be sorely missed. With the conditions not doing much towards the end of the innings, India will miss his unmatched ability to bowl in the death overs.

Plus, all the teams look to be standing reasonably well on paper, with no real favorites going into the competition. In a World Cup you want close matches all the time and that’s what Australia promises to provide. In a team sport, you don’t want a situation like Roland Garros. You don’t want a clown like Rafael Nadal, because it makes the tournament a bit boring

Originally published at Pen 18

Udhayveer Sidhu’s double gold sees India consolidate second place at ISSF World Championship

Cairo: India clinched three more gold medals, including two bronzes from Udayveer Sidhu, to consolidate its second position at the ISSF World Championships here on Saturday. Udayveer won both the junior men’s 25m and standard pistol titles, while Isha Singh won the junior women’s 25m pistol title as India ended the day with four gold and three bronze medals, with China’s eight gold and eight gold medals. There are 16 medals in total.

India also secured the Paris 2024 Olympic quota place after Rudraksh Balasaheb Patil stunned a high-quality field to become the world champion of 10 air rifle men on Friday.

Udayveer put up a combined score of 580 in the junior men’s sports pistol after accurate and rapid fire rounds, taking him to the top of the 23-strong field.

Italian Matteo Mastrovalerio was second while Liu Yangpan of China took the bronze with 577. In the standard pistol, he scored 568 in three stages to surpass Yangpan, who this time settled for silver with 567.

India’s Sameer also scored 567 but had to be content with a bronze medal in countback.

After finishing fourth in the qualification round with a score of 581, Isha finished second in her ranking match and made it to the final medal round. In eight series of five rapid fire shots in each final, Isha fired five and then four shots in each of the four rounds, emerging most consistent and winning the gold medal.

She eventually took 29 hits in the medal match to beat China’s Fang Cixuan, which ended with 25. Hungary’s Miriam Jako won the bronze medal. It was her first junior world title, after winning two silver medals at the Lima Junior World Championships last year.

India’s second bronze of the day came from Tejaswini in the junior women’s 25m standard pistol, when she shot 557 behind the Chinese athletes. Maanvi Jain stood fifth with 556 and Payal Khatri with 547 was ranked eighth.

In the day’s two Paris quota events, India’s Shiva Narwal finished eighth in the men’s 10m air pistol. He scored 583 to qualify for the ranking match in sixth place, but could not progress much after that, and was among the first to be eliminated on a score of 147.6.

Naveen missed out on a spot in the top eight after finishing ninth with 582. Two other shooters qualified on the same score but Naveen lost in a low internal 10. Vijayveer Sidhu finished 19th with 579 points.

India also missed out on the women’s 10m air pistol when Rhythm Sangwan finished 17th in the qualification with a score of 576. The final qualifying spot went to 580. Yuvika Tomar finished 25th with a score of 574 and Palak finished 50th with 568.

In other results, Sartaj Tiwana of India finished eighth in the ranking match with a score of 297.7 in the junior men’s 50m rifle three positions event. He had qualified seventh on Friday with a score of 580.

In the Junior Women’s 3P, none of the three contestants from India made it past the qualification stage, with Nischal being the best in 29th and Nikita Kundu finishing 30th. Both made a score of 576. Nupur Kumrawat was ranked 51st with 566. PTI AH AH ATK ATK

Originally published at Pen 18

Sourav Ganguly set to become president of Bengal Cricket Association, again

Outgoing BCCI chief Sourav Ganguly will return as the president of his state unit, the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), the former India captain said on Saturday.

Ganguly, who had to step down as BCCI president as there is no precedent to continue in the top post for more than three years, was the CAB president for four years between 2015 and 2019 before joining the BCCI.

“Yes, I will contest the CAB election. I plan to file my nomination on October 22. I have been in the CAB for five years and as per the Lodha rules, I can continue for four more years,” Ganguly told PTI.

There was strong talk that Ganguly’s elder brother Snehashish would replace Avishek Dalmiya for the top post, but the former India player’s nomination changes a lot of equations.

Ganguly said, ‘I will finalize my panel on October 20. lets see.’

Originally published at Pen 18